Hastings Died While Investigating Jill Kelley

Well this should provide some grist for the conspiracy theory mill: Michael Hastings was working on a piece about a privacy lawsuit from Jill Kelley before his fatal car crash. (You might remember Kelley from her role in David Petraeus' scandalous love quadrangle.) Hastings was scheduled to meet with one of the socialite's reps next week, the LA Times reports.

Of course, given Hastings' usual beat, virtually any story he might have been working on could prompt conspiracy theorists, and some have already been at work. WikiLeaks helped matters along last night by revealing that Hastings had contacted a WikiLeaks lawyer "just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him." The Los Angeles County coroner, meanwhile, confirmed today that it was indeed Hastings who was killed, reports AP. (More Jill Kelley stories.)